Hunter Hunted
by Brishen
Summary: Tsunade gets sick and the replacement paperpusher causes potentially lethal trouble for Kakashi, luckily Iruka is there to save the day, showing he's not quite as goodygoody as thought. Shonenai IrukaKakashi mentions SasuNaru and NejiLee [finished]


Disclaimer: check my bio.

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Dymna Habi scowled outwardly even as he smirked to himself, _finally! I get my chance to show everyone how much better I am at being Hokage than that...**female** could ever be._ Still mentally gloating over his good luck, Habi turned back to the paperwork on the Hokage's desk. Yesterday the almighty 5th Hokage had fallen sick. As a consequence she had been forced to take at least one full day off. Of course, the Hokage's work still had to be done, and that was where Habi came in. _Well I had better do something to make an impression,_ Habi mused. _Hmm... what do we have here?_ Evidently the Jounin Hatake Kakashi had not reported in nor been seen for several days. _Perfect, I'll declare him a missing-nin and blame the Hokage for not making his desertion known to the public._ Plan made, the acting Hokage stood and moved quickly to the Hokage's personal messenger birds. For a Jounin he had better use one of the best hunters.

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Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai and several others jumped quickly from tree to tree, moving back toward Konoha. They were coming back from a mission that had been personally assigned to them by the Hokage herself. Kakashi grimaced; it had been a nasty one. Though they hadn't lost anyone they had come very close. There wasn't a single one of them that wasn't hurt, himself included. They were all **very** glad to be moving back into friendly territory.

_It would be nice to have someone to go home to. _Kakashi thought, his mind straying to a certain schoolteacher before he shook himself, _no. You know that he wouldn't be able to deal with consequences of being in a relationship with you, even if he thinks he knows what he wants. _Kakashi sighed, he knew Iruka wanted him but the teacher was just too innocent, too pure. _I am a killer and the only way to understand what that means is to have killed others yourself._ And though Iruka was a Chuunin there was not even one kill on his record, and Kakashi should know, he had looked.

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Habi swallowed nervously as the stood in front of the person who had answered the hunter-nin summons. The man before him seemed to be made of shadows; he wore more or less the exact same thing that Anbu wore but in all black and dark, dark grey, even the metal of his hand, arm, leg and forehead protectors was matte black. His face was completely covered with a black fox-shaped mask.

Clearing his throat, Habi attempted to cover his nervousness with bluster, "Hunter-nin, I have a job for you." Habi held out Kakashi's file, "This Jounin has been declared a missing-nin. I am sending you and several others out to get rid of him." Habi sneered, "the 5th, for some unknown reason, decided that his desertion would go unpunished, but I will not make that mistake." There was a slight pause before the hunter-nin slipped through the window and out into the village. _Undoubtedly dazed_ _by my passion._ Habi thought with a satisfied air, he would wait until one of the hunter-nins came back with news of the Jounin's demise, then make his statement to the people.

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Iruka stopped at the outer edges of Konoha and stared at the file in his hand. The utter stupidity of Dymna Habi had shocked him. How anyone could be foolish enough to do something like declare someone a missing-nin when they know nothing about the situation was beyond him. That was bad enough but the fact that Dymna had actually thought that he would follow anyone other than the Hokage's orders was sheer idiocy. Iruka snorted, _maybe he just didn't know who he was **attempting** to control._ Of the possibilities that was the most likely. _Twit._ Iruka mentally snarled. _Well, I know that Kakashi along with several others are on a mission for the Hokage. Which of course means he might well be hurt and therefore less able to defend himself._ Iruka gave a shark-like smile under his mask. _I think I'll go to... defend him._

A small snarking voice in his mind spoke up, _:oh? And getting to play with your crush as nothing to do with it I suppose?:_

_Of course it does. Who knows? Maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to get in a good feel._

_:Lecher.:_

_Yep. One good thing did come from Dymna's stupidity._

_:Besides getting a chance to play hero to a certain silver-haired Jounin?:_

_I got his personal file._

_:Ooooo... I forgot about that.:_

_Indeed, now if only he would get over the whole 'Iruka's to good and pure to understand what has to be done in the life of a Jounin' thing he's got going..._

_:Well, he does think that you're the stereotypical innocent and sweet schoolteacher that everyone but Naruto believes you are.:_

_Yeah I know and **man** is it annoying. Hmm... maybe I should ask the Hokage if I could have Kakashi be my touchstone._

Hunter-nins had a single person, besides the Hokage, that knew who they were. Those people, called 'touchstones,' were the ones sent to recover a hunter-nin if they were ever seriously hurt. More often than not they were other hunter-nins but it wasn't a necessary trait, Iruka himself hadn't had a touchstone since the last one had died almost a year ago.

_:It's worth asking.:_

_So it is._

Having finished his conversation with himself, Iruka carefully tucked away the file and shot off through the trees. The faster he got there, the more Kakashi-watching time he had.

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Kakashi tensed slightly even as he continued running, he could have sworn he felt someone watching him.

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Tsunade snarled at the latest person to try and stop her. Everyone and their uncle seemed to be determined to keep her in bed today. She understood, to an extent, their fear of losing another Hokage so soon but honestly! She had been a medic-nin longer than most of these people had been shinobi! Finally making it to her office Tsunade sat down and grimaced at the paper work. Picking up the first sheet she froze. _A missing-nin declaration? What?_ Quickly, she skipped down to the name. _Hatake Kakashi?!?!_ Furious, Tsunade shot up.

"GET ME THE IDIOT THAT WAS PLAYING HOKAGE!!!"

Ten minutes later Habi was in a holding cell wait to find out the fate of the Jounin he had sentenced to death and, as such, his own. Tsunade was currently flying toward where Kakashi most likely was. After she had heard who Dymna had sent after Kakashi it was all she could do to keep herself from killing the bastard. At least Iruka was most likely following him. Her lips twitched, Iruka had never been one to take orders well, especially from someone like Dymna.

_Iruka, keep him safe._

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Iruka grinned fondly, he had been watching Kakashi and his group for a little over an hour and so far Kakashi was the only one to sense him.

_:You have a serious crush on him don't you?:_

_Yep._

_:....... You do realize that I'm supposed to be making you face your feelings and you?re supposed to be fighting it tooth and nail right?:_

_Why bother? It's bloody obvious. I mean hell, even how Sasuke and Naruto feel about each other is less obvious and they're together._

_:Umm......:_

_If you want to help someone why don't you go push at Neji and Lee? They certainly seem to need it._

_: ......Right.:_

Iruka tensed slightly as he felt more chakaras approaching. The hunter-nins were here.

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Kakashi growled slightly under his breath. That damn feeling was still here, though the others didn?t seem to sense it. Who the hell was it? He was brought out of his thoughts by the arrival of several hunter-nins in the clearing.

The group of shinobi stopped at the appearance of the hunter-nins and Kurenai stepped forward, "what's going on here?"

Instead of answering, the bird-masked hunter-nin performed a quick jutsu and Kakashi blinked, finding that he couldn't move. One of the other hunter-nins, this one with a cat mask, stepped forward and threw a kunai at Kakashi.

_Oh shit._ Kakashi thought numbly, waiting for the pain from the thrown weapon.

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Asuma stared in shock as the hunter-nin moved to kill Kakashi. _What?!?!_ He would have moved to intercept the blow but he had been frozen by the same jutsu that had stopped the others.

Suddenly another kunai hit the one heading toward Kakashi, knocking it off course and causing the hunter-nins to freeze.

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Iruka smirked as he saw the reactions of the other hunters. Gracefully, he leapt off the branch he had been balanced on and landed in front of the silver-haired Jounin. Stretching languidly, he quickly released the jutsu holding the other nins in place.

The bird-masked hunter stepped forward, "you are a hunter-nin of Konoha."

Iruka nodded lazily.

"Then why do you stand in our way?"

Iruka smirked, "several reasons, I'm sure that the only one you're interested in is that I happen to know that the Hokage wouldn't agree to your orders."

The hunter-nin paused before speaking slowly, "the acting Hokage gave us these orders."

Iruka snorted, "no shit. The bloody twit gave me the same orders, but you know as well as I do he's just trying to make a name for himself."

One of the other hunter-nins stepped forward, "if he gave you the same orders who are you to try and stop us?"

The rest of the hunter-nins, other than Iruka, all did a variation on the 'pinching the bridge of their noses and groaning' show of irritation. Iruka however, smirked. "You're new, aren't you?"

The bird masked hunter sighed and looked back at Iruka, ignoring the indignant spluttering from the other hunter-nin, "I believe you when you say the Hokage-sama wouldn't be pleased, but unfortunately we don't really have a choice in our orders."

Iruka nodded in understanding and grinned, "don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

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When the kunai speeding toward him had been blocked, Kakashi had been surprised, but grateful. But when the black-masked hunter had stepped in front of him and began speaking the gratefulness faded and all he could feel was shock. All hunter-nin masks disguised the wearer's voice so that those they spoke to couldn't identify them, but while the voices were almost monotonous what they were saying was anything but boring. Who the hell was his protector that the hunter-nins not only were willing to take his word on the Hokage's will but that they seemed to think that he would win one against all six of the others? And **WHY** was someone that powerful helping him.

He was quickly snapped out of these thoughts as the other hunter-nins rushed toward him and his protector.

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Iruka grinned wildly as the hunters came toward him; he hadn't had this much fun in ages.

The fight was a blur of movement and sensation, duck, twist, strike, dodge, the flow of chakara, the smell of adrenaline, the hunters fell back before him. They really stood no chance, and they knew it.

The greenie that had questioned Iruka before evidently both held a grudge and was amazingly stupid, very dangerous things where Iruka, a man with very little tolerance for idiocy, was concerned. He had gotten behind Iruka and instead of attempting to attack Iruka, who was busy putting the other hunters out for the night, he went after Kakashi. Idiot.

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When the fight had started all Kakashi had been able to think was _well... they were right about them not standing a chance._ The black masked hunter was almost **playing** with them. He was dodging their hits with seemingly ridiculous ease and every once in a while he would reach out and touch the foreheads of their masks and they would drop to the ground, out cold. Kakashi was so involved in watching the fight that he almost didn?t see the kunai thrown at him. Almost being the operative word. He dodged and turned toward the person that had thrown the weapon but then froze, unable to move. _Damn this is getting old._

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Iruka had caught the greenie's attack on Kakashi out of the corner of his eye and smirked when the Jounin dodged it. The smirk however, rapidly turned into a snarl when he saw the twit use a binding scroll to freeze Kakashi. Quickly, he finished off the rest of the hunters and turned his full attention to the little boy that was threatening HIS Jounin.

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Kakashi blinked, about half a second ago he had been completely unable to move, now not only was he free from that particular binding but also pressed up against what was a **very** nice body from what he could feel. And, considering he was flat against the black masked hunter from knee to shoulder, he could feel a lot.

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Iruka grinned as he held Kakashi's lean body flat against his own. _Oh yum._ Turning his attention back to the greenie he snorted, "bloody twit, next time, find out **who** your opponent is **before** you try to take him on." Almost casually, he made a one-handed seal and watched as the last hunter dropped before turning to look at Kakashi.

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Kakashi stayed still for a moment, waiting to see if the hunter was going to do something. When it became clear that the other wasn't going to do anything Kakashi cleared his throat, "thank you for helping me but... you **can **let go now."

There was a smile in the hunter's mask-altered voice as he answered, "I could."

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Asuma and the others just gaped at the pair, the same thought in their minds, _what the hell?_

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Iruka's grin widened as Kakashi blinked with disbelief, _he's so **cute**._

Without looking away from Kakashi's face he greeted the new comers to the field, "hello Hokage-sama."

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Tsunade didn't bother to hide her smirk as the other nins in the field jerked their heads toward her, having not spotted her entrance. "Just to make it formal, Kakashi has been cleared of all charges."

Iruka's voice was amused, "I thought as much."

Tsunade's smirk stretched a little more as she took in the sight of Iruka standing in all his black hunter-nin armour with Kakashi pressed snugly against his side, "are you going to let him go any time soon?"

"Hmm... I don't know. I kinda like him just where he is," Iruka replied thoughtfully.

Tsunade burst out laughing at the absolutely incredulous look in Kakashi's visible eye as he looked at Iruka. "Well," she choked out, "you have been after him for a bloody long time now." Tsunade had to lean against a nearby tree from the force of her renewed laughter as Kakashi turned his unbelieving look on her.

Iruka nodded, grinning, "what can I say, he's gorgeous, strong, smart and knows how to hide the last two. He's as close to perfect as you get."

Kakashi turned the Look back to him and what little of his face could be seen was now bright red.

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The other shinobi could only watch eyes bouncing back and forth like in a tennis match as the Hokage and the black masked hunter-nin did what they had all previously thought impossible, embarrass Hatake Kakashi.

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Kakashi groaned in mortification and hid his face in the hunter's shoulder, missing the signal Iruka gave Tsunade that the other hunters, had they been awake, would have recognized as a touchstone request and the smirking gesture of permission she gave back. So he was **very** surprised when he found himself scooped up in the hunter's arms and being carried away at a fast pace.

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Tsunade snickered in amusement as she turned back to the other shinobi, "well, let's get these guys back to Konoha."

"Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade turned to the one who had spoken, Asuma. "Yes?"

He cleared his throat, "umm... is Kakashi going to be okay?"

Tsunade threw back her head and laughed, "oh yeah," she said once she managed to stop laughing, "he's going to be fine. **Believe **me."

Asuma blinked and started as they heard a loud yelp that sounded suspiciously like 'dolphin' come from the direction the other two had gone off in. It took a while for the Hokage to stop laughing again so they could leave.

END


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